In Washington, London, Turkey, Kiev, and even Moscow, opponents of a possible US–Russian détente on Ukraine and Syria demonstrate again their power to thwart the process of negotiations.

January 27, 2016

Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments are at TheNation.com.) Last week, the discussion focused on promising meetings and statements, initiated by Secretary of State Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, German Chancellor Merkel, French President Hollande, and Russian President Putin, to negotiate an end to the Ukrainian civil/proxy war and to reconcile US and Russian policies in Syria. This week’s discussion focused on high-level attempts to undermine that process, among them a UK report alleging (without facts or logic) that Putin was behind the radiation assassination of a former Russian security agent in London, followed by a US Treasury Department public charge that Putin was personally “corrupt”—and thus an unfit partner; Vice President Biden’s statement in Turkey that Washington was prepared to undertake a “military solution” to the conflict in Syria; and Ukrainian President Poroshenko’s continuing refusal to implement requirements for negotiating the ongoing war there. In each capital, proponents of negotiations, including Putin himself, are being accused of preparing to “sell out” one or the other side in the conflicts. Meanwhile, Cohen points out, the new Cold War continues to deepen, spread and become more militarized with the ongoing shredding of cooperative relations built up over decades and accompanied by a renewed nuclear arms race. He ends by expressing astonishment that this most dangerous international crisis in decades, from Ukraine, Europe and Turkey to the Middle East, has received virtually no serious attention in the current American presidential campaigns, not even in the “debates,” apart from a few bumper sticker proclamations by the candidates and uninformed questions by the moderators.